A Special Kind of Loneliness

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.


Congratulations to Chris Huntington on receiving Honorable Mention for his lovely poem "Lorca (6)" in the 2019 Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry, awarded by Sing Lit Station! Chris's poem was first published in SP Blog as third-prize co-winner in the 4th Singapore Poetry Contest. Read "Lorca (6)" and the other winners of the Hawker Prize here.

As the editor of SP Blog, I was interviewed by Sing Lit Station on Chris's poem, Singapore, and the work of Singapore Unbound. Asked about my judge's comment on "Lorca (6)" about the "essential loneliness" that pertains to Singapore, I had the chance to expand on the thought:

"I've always thought that a writer's first reader is himself. He writes to himself to hear himself speak, to assuage his loneliness, to fill the blank air with sound. Singapore cannot assuage this existential loneliness; no place or country can, not even Granada, but loneliness in Singapore bears some special features. There is the loneliness inherent in the mindless consumption of things. There is the loneliness resulting from the attenuation of the extended family in space, time, and language. There is the loneliness exaggerated by our nationalistic claim to exceptionalism, instead of connection and collaboration. There is the loneliness born of the destruction of our natural environments. We have the loneliness of both the masters and the slaves."

You can read the rest of the lonesome interview here. Please also read the Top Link below, which tells of the loneliness of being on death row and that of the family of Pannir Selvam, and consider signing the petition against his execution.

Jee Leong Koh
July 25, 2019
 

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